A lot of people do the right thing and make early, financial retirement plans. They put money back in the form of savings, IRAs, and investment portfolios. When the big day came, they got their office party, their gold watch, and a nice bonus for their many years of loyal service to the company.
Unfortunately, the first day of retirement is a little like the first day after graduation. You have been looking forward to this moment for a long time. Now what? You have time, money, and energy, and no clear path forward. You planned for retirement but didn’t define it very well.
The real retirement problem is what to do with all that time. It doesn’t take that long to travel the world. As it happens, it’s a small world after all. You can tend your garden and fix up the shed. Now what? Here are a few more suggestions that might hold your interest a bit longer:
Complete Your Collections
Were you a numismatist when you were a kid? How about a philatelist? Just how complete is your collection of coins and stamps? If it has a few notable gaps, now is a good time to hunt down those missing pieces and fill out your collection.
You might be rather more successful than you imagined when you were a kid. This might be a good time to pick up some vintage Cartier jewelry pieces. We’re talking about serious jewelry and Art Deco collectibles. Those one-of-a-kind pocket watches are stunning. Take your time and find the perfect symbol of your achievements.
While you’re at it, rediscover your comic book collection. Clean the dust from the packaging of those unopened action figures. Use the power of the internet to find the companion products that make your collection complete. Don’t let retirement make you forget what it was like to be a kid. Now, you’re a kid with time and money. Use it to complete those collections that were once so important to you. While you’re at it, start a few more.
Use Your Extra Property to Make Money
Let’s face it: No one is traveling much these days. And we are headed into an even darker phase of the pandemic as the cold weather takes over. Your second property is sitting empty with no prospects. Why not prepare it to be an Airbnb rental?
You don’t have to give up the second home to have it pay off. You can rent it out for the months you do not need it. An empty home is an unproductive home. You can add a lot of money to your retirement just by putting that property to work for you.
Set yourself up for success by using the downtime to prepare your property. Do any necessary maintenance. Learn how to accept foreign currency. You don’t even have to do any of this work yourself. You can hire out all the work related to preparing your house as a rental. It is pretty much all profit that you can use to fill out those collections.
Write Your Story to Inspire the Next Generation
You don’t have to be a great writer to tell your story. You have lived a full and interesting life. You have made some epic mistakes and had many teachable moments. Don’t let all that experience go to waste. Set aside a little time every day to add a couple of thousand words to your memoirs.
While you don’t need any particular writing experience, you do need a laptop. A project like this deserves a new one. Use the new laptop exclusively for writing and you will be inspired to do more writing.
You also need to devote time to a writing schedule. Put in an hour every morning. Don’t get caught up in how many words you write every day. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that you devote consistent time to it every day. It is better to write 100 words in an hour than to write a thousand words in the same hour and skip the next day. Writing is the easiest habit to break. Build consistency. That is what will help you tell your story.
Retirement is nowhere near the end of the line. It is the perfect opportunity for you to complete your collections. Prepare your spare property to pay off for you. And get your story out there so others can benefit from your experience.
Photo by Mark Harpur on Unsplash
Have never really had a problem filling time during retirement, there’s plenty to do and as you suggest, having many interest outside or work is certainly an advantage, although funnily enough I still maintain an interest in work via mentoring and representing my old Uni. I have always collected stamps, it’s an interest that goes well with travel and I wrote the book too. I don’t have property having sold up when emigrating so cannot harness that one. On the whole, life is good, despite the dreaded virus !
Oops – that second line should have read: ‘having many interests outside of work’ – cheers !